


Forbidden Fruit

by havocthecat



Series: Team Evil [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-13
Updated: 2009-09-13
Packaged: 2017-10-02 12:09:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havocthecat/pseuds/havocthecat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth rescues Kate, but she has ulterior motives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forbidden Fruit

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally posted [here](http://community.livejournal.com/havocs_cry/39401.html) on LJ.
> 
> Part of the Team Evil series  
> 1\. Forbidden Fruit  
> 2\. [Ten Years of Perseverance](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6159)

_Forbidden fruit a flavor has   
That lawful orchards mocks;   
How luscious lies the pea within   
The pod that Duty locks!_  
\--Emily Dickinson

***

"I don't understand." Kate stands in the center of Elizabeth's bedroom. "Why did you take me from Atlantis? If you escaped, why didn't you just come home?"

"This is my home now." Elizabeth spreads her hands in a gesture Kate knows is meant to encompass the whole ship. "I brought you here because I need your help, Kate."

"I'm much better as a therapist in familiar surroundings." Kate leaves her arms at her side, and keeps herself as unthreatening as possible. It's not difficult. "There's always a place for you on Atlantis."

"Colonel Carter is under instructions from the IOA to detain me." Elizabeth can't even smile in the wry, self-deprecating way she used to. "We've tapped into Atlantis' communications systems."

"I knew Colonel Carter when I worked at the SGC," says Kate. She shakes her head. "She'd never--"

"She's acknowledged the order." Elizabeth crosses her arms and her chin rises. "She will. She won't take the chance that another Replicator in a human's image will threaten Earth. I understand that, but I don't condone the order."

"You're not a Replicator, Elizabeth," says Kate. She's lets her voice fill with empathy. "You're not one of them."

Elizabeth studies Kate in silence. She lets the minutes draw out long enough that almost anyone else would lose their composure. "I'm glad to hear that," she says. "It means you'll have no problem with the nanites inhabiting your body."

"What?" blurts Kate. Her eyes widen.

"You can't go back to Atlantis either." Elizabeth moves closer, and Kate can't control a flinch. There's masked pain in Elizabeth's gaze. "I thought you wouldn't be afraid of me."

"Of who you are?" There's a delicate balance Kate has to walk between honesty and tact. She's not sure she has that ability. "I'm not afraid of who you are. I'm afraid that what you've become has influenced your actions. I never thought that you, of all people, would do this to me."

"I've changed." Elizabeth is solemn. "I've had to in order to survive."

"You want to change me too." Kate's thoughts are moving faster than she can follow, and she's trying to control her panic.

"I said I needed your help." Elizabeth's voice is so calm that Kate knows she's hiding her feelings. "I have a plan to make this galaxy safe."

"I'm only a psychiatrist," says Kate. "I can't make this galaxy safe. I don't have that capability."

Elizabeth's mouth turns up into what might be the beginnings of a smile. "You're more important than you realize."

"I'm really not." Kate responds to Elizabeth's look with one that's just as determined. "The expedition can get along without me just fine. It's losing you that's disheartened us all."

"I never knew you cared." Elizabeth cups Kate's face in one hand. Kate frowns at her, but Elizabeth is unmoved. "You've got quarters adjacent to mine. I've missed you."

***

Kate opens the door to Elizabeth's quarters. There's one that connects their rooms. Sometimes she wonders why Elizabeth did that, since Kate's more of a prisoner than a guest. Sometimes she's just glad to be near someone familiar to her.

Elizabeth is working on a readout that's being displayed on her table. Kate doesn't know what she's working on. By now, the nanites have populated her system enough that she could reach out and connect her mind with the computer. She's afraid, though, that she loses some of her humanity when she enmeshes herself with machines.

She doesn't know how much of Elizabeth's humanity is left. She might be here to help Elizabeth preserve what she can. She hasn't asked, and Elizabeth won't say more than she has a plan to make the galaxy safe.

"I'm bored." She doesn't know if Elizabeth can hear her through the Replicator network. Kate can't bear to listen to it. It's overwhelming, so she uses relaxation techniques she knows from school, and blocks them out. "How can you stand it?"

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth finally looks up, at least doing Kate the favor of pretending not to know she's been there all along.

"The Replicators. Asurans." She sits on Elizabeth's bed. The room is more austere than Elizabeth's quarters on Atlantis had been. "They weren't programmed to go beyond the initial parameters given to them by the Ancients. They have no creativity."

"They mean well," says Elizabeth. She taps in a command, and the screen vanishes.

"I was looking for something fun to do, and they suggested I recode the binary source compilers." Kate smooths her hand down the blanket, and Elizabeth sits next to her. "They keep watching me. I don't know what they want."

"They're trying to understand us." Elizabeth leans back on her hands. Every inch of her figure is controlled. "They feel that Ascension isn't beyond them, if only they can understand what makes us human."

"I've gotten better at blocking them out." Kate glances away. She's here because Elizabeth is the only person she knows on this ship. She's clinging to the familiar, even after what Elizabeth has done to her. "Your advice helped."

"How are you handling it here?" asks Elizabeth. She doesn't look it, but she sounds concerned. "It's a lot to take in."

"It's lonely." Kate's admission isn't as difficult as she thought it would be. Maye it's because she's sure Elizabeth feels the same way. "I miss--"

She misses John, but she isn't willing to say it out loud. She shrugs instead.

"You're the expert." Elizabeth sits up long enough to tug down the zipper of her jacket and shrug it off. "What level of contact with other humans will you and I need to keep from going insane?"

Kate's been starved for human contact for months. She spends her nights alone. On Atlantis, she hadn't spent a night alone in three years. She can't help but stare at the set of Elizabeth's shoulders. "That depends on a number of factors."

When Elizabeth leans over enough that their lips meet, Kate makes a small, surprised noise in the back of her throat. "You should count this as one of them." She pulls back just enough to smirk at Kate.

"There's someone--" Kate swallows. "There's someone on Atlantis."

"Whoever it is, they think you're dead," says Elizabeth.

"You have someone on Atlantis." Kate holds herself back and watches Elizabeth's reaction. "Someone that thinks _you're_ dead."

"How did you know?" Elizabeth's eyes widen just a fraction.

"I'm an observer," says Kate. She shrugs at Elizabeth's quizzical look. "I watch human interactions. I notice relationships as they develop."

"Are you saying you like to watch?" asks Elizabeth. She lets her hand settle on Kate's shoulder, and heat spreads across Kate's skin. "If I'd known, I'd have invited you over."

Kate gives Elizabeth a stern look. "Did you think that was funny?"

"I'm serious." Elizabeth shifts her hand so she's sliding her palm across Kate's breast. Kate doesn't stop her, just sighs and relaxes into the touch. "So who's the lucky person? Is it a woman?"

"Would you _please_ tell me why everyone assumes I'm the token Atlantis lesbian?" asks Kate. She lets her head fall back, and does her best not to roll her eyes at the ceiling.

"You act like one," comments Elizabeth.

Kate's not going to argue that, not at this moment. Every movement of Elizabeth's hand against her breast sends shivers down her spine. "I didn't expect you'd fall for city-wide rumors."

There's a moment when Elizabeth pauses, and as Kate looks up, their mouths meet. She knows this is a bad idea. She _knows_ that Elizabeth has an ulterior motive, but there's a heat in Kate's stomach she doesn't want to ignore. It would be difficult to shove Elizabeth's hand away. She could get up and leave, and Elizabeth wouldn't stop her.

She lets one hand slide up Elizabeth's back instead, and kisses her as they lower themselves down on the bed. They pull each other's clothing off. Elizabeth seems a little hesitant when she has Kate naked underneath her. Kate gives her a wry look, and Elizabeth takes a deep breath. "Not chickening out now, are you?" asks Kate.

The laugh Elizabeth gives is a little shaky. "I'm not used to this," she says.

"Me either," murmurs Kate.

She does her best to memorize the taste of Elizabeth's skin. When Elizabeth starts to shake, Kate slides her fingers inside, and she hushes Elizabeth's outcry with a kiss. They breathe heavily for a moment, Elizabeth's forehead resting against Kate's, and then Elizabeth pulls Kate close. She circles her fingers around Kate's clit, letting Kate rock her hips against Elizabeth's hand.

When she can't take the buildup of pressure any more, Kate snaps out, "Goddamnit, Elizabeth!" There's a smirk on Elizabeth's face, and she presses her palm down as Kate feels the orgasm spiraling through her. She shudders and clutches at Elizabeth's shoulders, breathing hard, then falls back. She shifts her weight to slide under the covers, and let Elizabeth move under them as well. "That was interesting."

"After all of that, the only thing you can come up with is interesting?" asks Elizabeth. She lets her palm slide along Kate's bare hip. "I'm disappointed."

"I'm not." Kate sighs as she lets her head rest on Elizabeth's shoulder. "It's a normal reaction to a stressful situation. I just hadn't expected it between you and I."

"If anyone's in a stressful situation, it's you and I," says Elizabeth. She lets her fingers brush through Kate's hair. The silence drags on, and Kate makes it clear that she's more than willing to outwait her. "I have a plan, you know that. I need your help for it to work."

Kate lifts her head to look at Elizabeth. Her eyes harden. "I hope you don't think I've forgotten I'm here because of you." She lifts herself up and reaches for her shirt.

"Don't, Kate," says Elizabeth, but Kate silences her with a look.

"I didn't think that you, of all people, would be so monumentally stupid as to believe that sex would mean I would agree to anything you said." Kate slips her bra on and hooks it shut, then pulls her shirt over her head.

"I needed not to feel alone," says Elizabeth. She sits up in the bed and watches as Kate shoves the covers back even farther. "It had nothing to do with my plan."

"Bullshit," snaps Kate stepping onto the floor. She tugs her underwear on and grabs her slacks. "You might want to try that line on someone other than your therapist."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She looks sick, but Kate isn't fooled.

"The woman who can't ever talk about her emotions just happens to have a breakdown when I'm feeling vulnerable?" asks Kate. Her laughter is bitter. "My apparently brief foray into lesbianism isn't going to make me go along with your plan. I was interested in this for _you_, not as a way to make me more receptive to whatever you have in mind."

She stalks through the connecting door, ignoring Elizabeth's gaze on her. She's not being entirely fair toward Elizabeth's motives, but, then again, Elizabeth's motives aren't all that innocent either.

\--end--


End file.
